Computer servers or so-called “blade” servers may be used in data centers to optimize space and energy consumption. Multiple blade servers may be housed in a chassis unit. For example, the chassis unit may manage the multiple blade servers by providing power, cooling, networking and other management of the servers.
Traditionally, there is no limit enforced by a data center or chassis unit on the amount of power that the blade servers can consume. As a result, blade servers are often allocated with more power than they actually use. In order to avoid unnecessary power allocation to the blade servers, power capping may be used to reduce the amount of electricity or power that servers can consume at a given time by enforcing power consumption limits. Ultimately, this can reduce the electricity costs of running the blade servers. When power capping is used, however, servers might not have enough power to run at their peak performance level, and as a result, power capping may cause performance degradation.